Gainward’s product line boasts four GTX 560 cards and among them is our today’s guest – the GTX 560 2GB. Twice the memory means twice the room for high-res textures but the card also has special Gainward cooling that should be quiet during operation.

Whether GTX 560 owners actually need 2048MB instead of the standard 1024MB is quite a frequent question. Unfortunately, the answer mostly leans towards no, because mid-range GPUs, such as the one on GTX 560, can’t handle highest resolutions. This means that you’ll sooner experience stuttering due to lack of GPU power than memory at resolutions like 1920x1080 and 2560x1600.

Let us remind you once more that GTX 560 and GTX 560 Ti are not the same cards. Nvidia’s Geforce GTX 560 launched on May 17th, whereas Geforce GTX 560 Ti launched on January 25. The latter car also has 384 stream processors, 48 more than the GTX 560.

GTX 560 is a card that filled the gap between GTX 560 Ti and GTX 460 cards. We thought that Nvidia will retire its GTX 460 (based on GF104), but it seems we’ll have to wait a bit more until that happens. As you can see, the GTX 460 is listed in Nvidia’s GTX 560 presentation slides and it still coexists with the GTX 500 series.

Note that the GF114 is a derivation of GF104. However, the GF114 packs a few improvements inherited from the GF110. The GF114 GPU received plenty of positive acclaim so far and we’ve seen that the card boasts nice performance-per-clock ratio as well. GTX 560 and GTX 560 Ti are based on the GF114, although the new card is slower due to some disabling within the GPU.

As you can see from the GPUZ shot below Gainward GTX 560 2048MB isn’t overclocked.

Before we cover details, let us show you Gainward’s complete GTX 560 offer.

Gainward Geforce GTX 560 1024MB "Phantom"

The Phantom is designed for those with a taste for maximum silence. Although factory overclocked by only 12MHz, powerful Phantom cooling will have you covered if you decide to push the card further.

Core Clock 822 MHzMemory Size 1,024 MB

Gainward Geforce GTX 560 1048MB "Golden-Sample"

All Gainward’s GTX 560 cards come with special coolers. The Golden Sample’s cooling isn’t quite as fancy as the Phantom’s, but this doesn’t mean that the GS will not work well and quietly.

Core Clock 822 MHzMemory Size 1,024 MB

Gainward Geforce® GTX 560 1024MB

This is a card with less attractive cooling, but its performance trails Phantom and Golden Sample cards by only 12MHz.

Core Clock 810 MHzMemory Size 1,024 MB

Gainward Geforce GTX 560 2048MB

This is the card on our test and you’ll find more details on the following page.